Chris Powell's Plymouth preview

I’m hopeful we can get a player over the line in time for Saturday. I’ve made no secret that we need to add to the squad in certain areas and I’m hoping to address one area by Saturday.

We are a striker light, even maybe two. I’ve made no secret of the areas that we’re looking in but we’ll wait and see if that can get rubber-stamped in time for Saturday.

On Taylor Moore’s injury…

He’s touch and go. He’s not as bad as we first thought, but from past experience we know hamstrings sometimes you think you’re OK and then when you open up and run at full pelt and stop and check it can be a bit different.

He’s still 50/50, I wouldn’t rule him out because he’s a bit of a soldier and he’s done extremely well since he’s been here and he loves playing.

I’ve always said to him and any player, maybe miss one game to make you available for the next 10 is better than trying to play and be unavailable for the next 10.

If we have to miss him then we have to get on with it.

We’re 26 games in and we have been a patched up side all season, so if we miss Taylor then we’ll get on with it and the players that are selected need to get out there and do their best to get us a result.

On facing Freddie Ladapo…

Freddie had a mixed time here and it was a shame. We were doing quite well at the time with Marco and Coxy and then we had Shayon and him as back up.

I think Freddie always needed to go somewhere where he was the main man. He was from East London and knew Southend from previous. I think he just needed a clean slate. Sometimes that’s what strikers are like.

I spoke to him in the summer and sent him a text and wished him well and he responded. We’ll have to keep him quiet but we’ll have to keep them quiet as well, not just Freddie.

On where Blues are in the table…

We’re tenth and this time last year we were 17th. I look at it and see have we progressed and actually we feel we should and could have done better this season.

We know even with what we’ve put out we’ve done better. We’ve scored more and conceded a lot less, and they’re always pointers for me. But do I think we should’ve had more points, yes I do.

That’s the driven aspect of me and the group that actually we want more from them. We actually think we could improve more.